Word.ws English Dictionary

held over someone's head

held over someone's head is the simple past and past participle of hold over someone's head.

Meaning of hold over someone's head

Verb

hold over someone's head (third-person singular simple present holds over someone's head, present participle holding over someone's head, simple past and past participle held over someone's head)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To harp on; to remind continuously (especially of a misstep or defeat).
    • I get one parking ticket and he holds it over my head for six months.

Questions about held over someone's head

What is held over someone's head the simple past and past participle of?
Held over someone's head is the simple past and past participle of hold over someone's head.

Words near held over someone's head in the dictionary

  1. held one's water
  2. held oneself together
  3. held onto
  4. held out
  5. held over
  6. held over someone's head
  7. held ransom
  8. held short
  9. held someone's feet to the fire
  10. held someone's hand
  11. held space

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: held over someone's head (page history and authors); hold over someone's head (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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